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Sunday during PBS NewsHour, KLRU’s News Brief is part of American Graduate, a focus on the Central Texas dropout crisis. This week we spoke to the Texas Veterans Commission about their new campaign “Drop Your Rucksack, Grab a Backpack,” which launches on Veteran’s Day. It is aimed at encouraging Texas veterans to use the education benefits available to them.

“Sometimes veterans coming out of the service feel like they don’t have time to go back to school and get an education but fortunately the military has set up the post 9/11 G.I. Bill that pays for their college education and gives them a stipend on top of that,” Bonnie Fletcher, Education Specialist at the Texas Veterans Commission said. “The State of Texas also has a state benefit, the Hazelwood Act. We offer up to a 150 credit hours of tuition paid at any public school in Texas. These are benefits that you’ve earned and they’re there for you to utilize.”

We spoke to Dan Hamilton, a Junior at the University of Texas, who served in the Marine Corps after high school and deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. You can hear more about his story, and about the program, in the video above.

KLRU News Briefs air locally during PBS NewsHour Weekend, Saturday and Sunday at 6:30pm. Do you have an American Graduate story idea? We’d love to hear from you. Email us at CivicSummit@klru.org, post a comment, or tweet at us using #amgradtx.

KLRU, Leadership Austin, Annette Strauss Institute for Civic Life and KUT will host three nights of discussions about leadership with runoff candidates for Austin’s 10 City Council districts and Austin Mayor.

The forums are free but an RSVP is required. One RSVP gets you access to all tapings on that night. Please RSVP separately for each night you plan to attend.

Tuesday, November 11
5:45 pm Doors open
District 1: 6:30-7pm
District 3: 7:15-7:45pm
District 4: 8:00-8:30pm
District 6: 8:45-9:15pmRSVP

Wednesday, November 12
5:45 pm Doors open
District 7: 6:30-7pm
District 8: 7:15-7:45pm
District 10: 8:00-8:30pmRSVP

All run-off candidates will be invited to participate in discussions to be taped for broadcast in KLRU’s Civic Summit series. Invitations are also extended to newly-elected council members in Districts 2, 5 & 9 to speak on the same topics.

Only four of the 78 candidates who ran for Austin’s 10 new districts and for Mayor have ever served at City Hall. As our government shifts from an at-large council to one with geographic representation, each person on the dais will be tasked with leading their region, while keeping a focus on the needs of the city as a whole. Our conversations will focus on leadership values and qualities each candidate will bring to our rapidly changing city.

Civic Summit: Runoff Discussions will be focused on the theme of leadership. “By the time run-off elections begin, we will have heard candidates’ opinions on specific policies and projects. What we want to focus on is what leadership values and qualities will they bring to help lead our rapidly changing city,” said Christopher Kennedy, Leadership Austin CEO.

On Saturday during PBS NewsHour, we go behind the scenes of a new exhibit at the Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum. La Belle: The Ship that Changed History is unique. Museum goers can watch in real time as curators re-build a 17th Century ship, which spent 300 years underwater in Matagorda Bay.

La Belle belonged to Sieur de La Salle, a French explorer who came to the New World in 1684. He was on his way to the mouth of the Mississippi River, missed it, and landed in Texas.

“He would eventually lose the La Belle in a storm in 1686,” Guest Curator Jim Bruseth explains in our story. “The sinking of the La Belle doomed La Salle’s attempt to establish a colony. Because of that, the French presence in Texas faded, but the scare that it put in the Spanish king started the efforts to colonize and occupy Texas by Spain.”

That scare is why La Belle is called the ship that changed Texas history. The exhibit is open now and runs through May 17, 2015.

On Saturday evening KLRU’s local news story during PBS NewsHour is an excerpt from Arts in Context Shorts’ With Panache, a look inside Esquina Tango in East Austin. Teachers Mickey Jacobs and Orazzio Loayza say tango is great for all people, regardless of fitness level.

“I think it’s important of people of all ages to be able to enjoy dance. We believe in health and well-being and dance offers that,” Jacobs said.

“We have people in their 40s, 50s, 60s. It’s good for their health because you’re not running, you’re walking and what is a better exercise than just walking,” Loayza said.

Some classes at the non-profit dance studio are free, some are donation only, and some cost between $12-$15 per class.

On Sunday our story is about The Thinkery’s Bilingual Storytime program. Storytime happens on Community Nights, twice per week, when the museum stays open late and the entrance fee is based upon a donation of any size.

Every Wednesday evening, children’s books are read in English and Spanish by volunteer bilingual students from the University of Texas. Museum staff say the premise came from a desire to bring different cultures together while fostering early literacy.

“The majority of the families are Spanish speaking, or just monolingual and just want their kid to learn Spanish. And to bring those two different communities together in one bilingual storytime is very important,” Sasha Ellington, The Thinkery’s Floor Supervisor said.

On Sunday evenings they offer bilingual storytime with English and American Sign Language.

This Saturday during PBS NewsHour Weekend we profile Ten Acre Organics, a sustainable urban farm in East Austin.

Friends Lloyd Minick and Michael Hanan founded the farm back in 2012 with the goal of creating a sustainable approach to agriculture in an urban environment. Now they’ve created a business, using composting, two aquaponics systems and naturally-ventilated greenhouses.

“We sell baskets of groceries and what we do is we try to sell ten of them in any week to neighbors and people that we work with, and then the food that’s produced in the aquaponics system mostly herbs and greens we sell to local restaurants,” Michael Hanan said.

On Sunday, we talk to Travis County officials to get a tally of how many people registered to vote before the midnight deadline on Monday, October 6th. Travis County Tax Registrar Bruce Elfant said they saw more people registering this year than in recent gubernatorial election cycles.

“It’s not like a presidential cycle but it’s higher than we typically see in a gubernatorial year,” Elfant said. “We had locations at every Thundercloud Subs throughout Travis County. People could also register at any tax office location, or pick up cards at libraries or post offices. We believe we received as many as 10,000 cards on Monday.”

We also spoke to some University of Texas students registering their classmates on campus.

KLRU News Briefs air every Saturday and Sunday evening during PBS NewsHour Weekend at 6:30pm.

Our Saturday news brief during PBS NewsHour Weekend comes from KLRU’s Arts in Context Shorts series. This week they go inside The Blue Starlite, a vintage drive-in which utilizes vintage speakers, trailers and the tarmac of the former airport.

A few nights every week cars gather just before sundown and line up in front of the screen, the distant city skyline appearing as a backdrop. What started as a stunt to impress his then girlfriend and now wife, owner Josh Frank’s drive-in has grown to accommodate up to 50 cars, a handful of walk-ins, and a Winnebago-housed concession stand.

“The whole combined experience, especially with being outside and under the stars – it’s just a very unique experience that’s totally outside of what you would get at a traditional theater,” Manager Gregg Wehmeier said.

The last day to register to vote in the November election is Monday, October 6. So, on Sunday, we take a look back at the final two debates for Lieutenant Governor and Governor, which both took place this week. Monday, in the race for Lt. Governor, Republican Nominee Dan Patrick and Democratic Nominee Leticia Van de Putte faced off in KLRU’s Studio 6A. On Tuesday, Gubernatorial candidates, Republican Nominee Greg Abbott and Democratic Nominee Wendy Davis, debated in the KERA studio in Dallas.

KLRU News Briefs air locally during PBS NewsHour Weekend at 6:30pm on Saturday and Sunday.

Texas State Attorney General Greg Abbott and State Senator Wendy Davis square off in The Texas Debates: The Race for Governor. The debate will be livestreamed starting at 8pm Sept. 30. The one-hour live debate is a co-production with NBC 5/KXAS-TV and Telemundo 39/KXTX-TV, and The Dallas Morning News.

On Sunday evening during PBS NewsHour Weekend we’ll preview the only scheduled debate in the race for Lieutenant Governor of Texas.

Republican nominee State Senator Dan Patrick and Democratic nominee State Senator Leticia Van de Putte will face off in KLRU’s Studio 6A Monday, September 29, at 7pm. Texas Lieutenant Governor Debate 2014 will be broadcast statewide on PBS stations, on radio and on some commercial TV stations.

You can also join the conversation on social media with the hashtag: #LtGovDebate.